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Eerie Audio Files

Before the Haunted Mansion opened: preliminary works

For your listening (dis)pleasure, DoomBuggies.com presents an exhaustive
collection of Haunted Mansion-related audio information and samples, each
of which will take you into the Haunted Mansion's distinctive atmosphere
of boundless mist and decay. To begin, let's explore the Walt Disney Studio's
sound libraries and discover some sounds the WED Imagineers may have used
as inspiration for their creations.

The Beginnings: Disneys spooky sound library

The Walt Disney Company is no stranger to innovative sound and audio work,
as evidenced by Walt's experimentation with sound cartoons, and his breakthrough
stereophonic recording of Leopold Stokowski conducting the soundtrack to
Fantasia. So it is no surprise that one of the first aspects of the
Haunted Mansion's development was sonic design. As early as 1957, acetate
recordings of potential studio sound effects were being created, such as
the example pictured below, which was labeled "eeire music" (sic)
and "weird background music." In fact, this recording is believed
to have been used in early "pitches" of scenes and effects from
the proposed Disneyland haunted house to Walt Disney himself.

The
recording, a 20 minute continuous loop of otherworldly harps and eerie glissando
tones, is likely a recording created for Ken Anderson (pictured, above)
to use as background atmosphere as he demonstrated various ideas and storylines
to Walt during their many meetings.

Pitching to Walt

From its earliest days, the planning of Disneyland included a haunted house-type
attraction. Walt Disney had placed Anderson, one of his most creative concept
artists, in charge of the early "haunted house" development. As
in all Disney projects, the conceptual approach involved a strong sense
of story. Anderson immediately went to work to develop a cohesive story
for the attraction.

The following rare sample is an artifact from one of Ken Anderson's development
pitch sessions, and is an excerpt of the Disney acetate pictured above.

For his pitch to Walt Disney, Anderson constructed miniature and then full
mock-up models of how the proposed areas of the Mansion would appear. With
Walt in the audience, Anderson would pitch the story and narration of the
various themed tableaux. In addition to dramatic narration and lighting,
Anderson used background recordings to get his point across. Many of these
were pulled from the vast Disney Studio archive of sound effects and music.
Of course as you know (if you have studied the Mansion's history),
most of Anderson's early walk-through concepts were left behind when it
was realized that only a ride could carry the capacity necessary for the
"E" Ticket attraction that Walt wanted.

Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House

By the early sixties, Walt Disney Productions had developed an extensive
collection of eerie sound effects for various productions - among them the
Haunted Mansion attraction for Disneyland. In 1964, possibly in anticipation
of an imminent opening of the attraction (which was still being called the
"Haunted House" on occasion at that point in its development),
Disneyland Records released "Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted
House" (DQ-1257; out of print but still readily
available due to the massive number of pressings sold.) If you ever
owned this record, you may remember the familiar opening track:

"You are a bold and courageous person, afraid of nothing. High
on a hilltop near your home, there stands a dilapidated old mansion. Some
say the place is haunted, but you don't believe in such myths. One night,
a light appears in the topmost window in a tower of the old house. You decide
to investigate. And you never return..."

This collection of sound effects and "stories in sound" contains
some of the sound effects which can be heard on the actual Haunted Mansion
ride soundtrack. On side one, a no-nonsense female narrator (voiced by an
uncredited Laura Olsher, who recorded voices for other Disney records as
well) sets up various situations, and then the sound effects take over and
tell the story, usually with an ironic gag at the end of the track. Most
of the tracks are fairly silly (though one
of them is insensitive to cultural norms). The first track ("The Haunted
House"), however, is classic audio heard in Halloween spook houses
around the world.

Variations on a theme

Pictured at right are a number of the variations in the printed covers
for the album, as well as a British version of the release (bottom). The
artwork used on the American versions of the record was painted by WED artist
Paul Wenzel as concept art for the proposed Disneyland Haunted House attraction,
which was still in the planning stages when the art was produced. The British
album uses a photo of the Haunted Mansion itself on the cover. All of the
recordings are the same. Each cover proclaims "Here lies a most terrific
collection of recorded sounds," and the back covers offer this disclaimer:
"This particular Disneyland record, CHILLING, THRILLING SOUNDS OF THE
HAUNTED HOUSE, is not intended for young, impressionable children from three
to eight. It is intended for older children, teenagers and adults."
While such a notice on a album today would likely be a cynical means by
which to market the product to children, it is likely that in 1964, Disneyland
Records honestly had concerns about the potential impact of a "horror"
album on their good name. The runaway success and mulitple repressings of
this record likely alleviated that fear, however.

Trivia time: many of the ghostly sounds on the album are from Disney's
classic "Lonesome Ghosts" cartoon, which was an influence on Ken
Anderson and his early designs for the Disneyland "Ghost House."
Certainly, Anderson used some of these sounds for his Haunted House pitches
and demonstrations.

Click the button to listen to "Band 1: The Haunted House" from
Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House (Disneyland Records DQ-1257).
Narrated by Laura Olsher, this track features classic Haunted House/thunderstorm
sounds, some of which can be heard inside the Haunted Mansion.

Listen to "Band 5: Your Pet Cat." This
track features a humorous gag culminating in Disney's famous "fighting
cats" sounds, which can also be heard inside of the Haunted Mansion.

Listen to the howling screech used as a "bumper"
on many of the tracks from Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House.
This should bring chills to those who may be nostalgic for this album.

Monster kids rejoice

The record was definitely influential on an entire generation of baby-boomer,
chiller-theater-watching, monster-loving kids, being as widely distributed
and common as it was throughout the '60s and '70s. Record reviewer "Zeke"
shares a memory of the album on rateyourmusic.com:

"I can't remember how it came up, but my friend was telling me about
his favorite record as a kid - this one. He thinks he begged his mom to
buy it at the supermarket, thinking it was the music from the Haunted Mansion
ride at Disneyland... and was probably miffed when he first played it and
realized it wasn't. But he came to love the record, and it became one that
he played all the time. He could still, by memory, recite the narration
from entire tracks. He lost it somewhere along the way as he grew up, but
missed it. It was his Rosebud, his Bobo. That weekend, of course, I looked
for it and found a decent used copy. I brought it home, and my friend got
a little misty-eyed when he saw the record cover. He took a few minutes
to prepare, then we played it. I was amazed that even though he hadn't heard
the thing in (is it possible?) 25 years, he was still able to lip synch
the entire first side's narration. He knew exactly when each sound occurred
in the stories, and would get excited when a particularly good ghostly moan
was about to begin. He recalled a game he and his friends made up based
on the suspension bridge piece - they'd pretend to walk along the rickety
boards, and fall to the ground when the character fell to his death. Turns
out a tune whistled by a character in one of the tracks is the generic tune
my friend will whistle when spontaneous whistling is in order. We laughed
as one long creak sound effect really sounded like a painfully squeezed-out
fart. Oh how we laughed..."

The memory recounted above is a great example of the type of nostalgic
reaction that can be caused by this enormously popular album. In fact, once
it became plain that the record would be so successful, Disney decided to
capitalize on the burgeoning Halloween market by changing the cover to pumpkin
orange, and then a few years later, by adding some "spooky
party hints" to the record sleeve.

Collectors should note that there are two distinct versions of the
original white cover, and two distinct versions of the orange cover.
The white variations are easiest to distinguish by the back covers,
which feature differing versions of Wenzel's cover art (see left).

Fall in love all over again - buy your own copy

If you'd like to try to track down a copy yourself, visit
Music Stack to see what's in stock. There are often merchants here who
will sell the album along with a copy on CD.

Released in 1979, this album of 26 "eerie" sound
effects and seven "frightening situations" is a so-so follow-up
to the classic 1964 collection. Possibly inspired by increasingly common
horror flicks and the expanding Halloween novelty market, this surprisingly
bleak release features a collection of average sound effects, with none
of the humor of the earlier recording. Included at left are some samples
this album's offerings.

Despsite the misleading similar title, the 1979 version of
"Chilling, Thrilling Sounds" is quite unlike its predecessor,
and doesn't contain any Haunted-Mansion-specific content (though the cover
art does feature ravens and a coffin with a restless occupant trying to
escape.)